last three years. increasingly, though, democrats are asking themselves if the grand bargain is even something that they want at all. is there anything they could possibly get from house republicans that would be worth these cuts to social programs? so what's changed in their thinking? first, let's keep a couple things in mind. the whole idea of a grand bargain is really republican deficit hawks can see, one democrats were forced into accepting after the gop wave election of 2010 but are finding a bit tougher to swallow now. shouldn't we really be focusing on jobs for now? infrastructure and investment for the future? second, even the more budget balancing inclined the democratic caucus is starting to look at the numbers and say, hey, actually the deficit is coming down at a pretty good clip. deficit peaked in 2009 and has, in fact, been falling rapidly since then. despite what republicans would have you believe, democrats don't love racing taxes just for the sake of raising taxes. we do so in the service of creating a fairer tax code, funding investments for the future and in the service of a balanced approach to deficit

reduction. if you take out the deficit reduction concerns and lord knows that any sort of inve investment spending right now is not going to pass muster with the house republicans, you're left with the fairness motive. a more just system would certainly be nice, does it offset the injustice of cutting benefits to folks who rely on social security? to scuttle a brand bargain deal, though, democrats need some sort of political cover. hmm. if only some republican would put out a really toxic, extreme, ideological plan that democrats could point to as continuing republican intransigence, they could walk away with not political consequence. you know, i think i know just the guy. all right. that does it for us here at "the cycle." martin bashir, all yours. good afternoon, it's thursday march the 14th. who needs compromise on capitol hill when cpac is just a few miles up the road?

>> was there any hint of smoke here? >> you're straining the analogy. >> barack obama i was not elected to pope. >> that was george stephanopoul stephanopoulos. >> a frank and candid exchange. >> i thought it was productive. >> i actually just want to govern. >> this conference, this audience, guards conservative identity from liberal wolves in sheeps clothing. >> you're going to hear from narco rubio, the r.g. iii of american politics. >> all that's missing from that convention -- >> all i want to tdo is tesee t guy's birth certificate. >> the gop has grown -- >> he doubled down from it, didn't back up from it at all. >> i don't think we need to name any names, do we?

it is a very busy day in politics with a crucial moment for the president's outreach on capitol hill. even as conservatives gather to regroup, re-brand and rebuild at cpac 2013. this afternoon the president has been on capitol hill for a third day. this time meeting with house democrats as well as senate republicans. perhaps the key group that could work with him to craft a deficit reduction deal. after all, despite endless rounds of negotiations, we know that the caucus and the house gop has repeatedly refused engage. following the president's visit on wednesday, they offered their usual mix of intransigence and rigidity voiced by who else but majority leader eric cantor. >> if the president wants to let our unwillingness to raise taxes to get in the way, then we're not going to be able to set differences aside and focus on what we agree on. and my takeaway was that. >> in other words, if the

president doesn't agree with everything they agree on, they won't be able to focus on what they agree on. right. nice work, mr. cantor. meanwhile, down at cpac, anti-tax guru grover norquist put it a little more bluntly. >> republican elected officials who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a coke bottle. they damage the brand for everybody else. >> rats in a coke bottle? yuck. i can't wait to hear what sarah palin has to say when she addresses cpac's liberty loving soda drinkers tomorrow. indeed, there was no shortage of fermenting on stage at the gaylord hotel suburban maryland. starting this morning with former congressman allen west. >> i'm speaking from experience when i tell you there's nothing on this green earth that a liberal progressive fears more than a black american who wants a better life and a smaller

government. >> goodness me. do you think he realizes he lost his election? nebraska case, today was not about looking back to election losses. that will be tomorrow when mitt romney speaks. no, today was about the next generation. forward to the future. and a possible preview of senator versus senator. >> the republican party has to change. by going forward to the classical and timeless ideas enshrined in our constitution. >> we don't need a new idea. there is an idea. the idea is called america, and it still works. >> see what i mean? new and improved. we've also just learned that mitt romney's speech tomorrow will take place at the exact same time as a breakout session entitled, how to get a job in politics. nbc news deputy political editor domenico joins us live from cpac. could you have been giving a more entertaining assignment than the one you had today at

cpac or is it more tragedy than comedy for you? >> reporter: it's always entertaining. it's good for us as political reporters and people who want to analyze how things are going to wind up. you see someone like marco rubio juxtaposed immediately with someone like rand paul. these are both people who people expect will at least entertain a run in 2016. with rubio, you didn't hear anything on immigration which is something he's been pushing through congress, but it's not necessarily something that will play well here in front of a conservative audience. but that tells you why marco rubio is someone so key on immigration because he can actually -- he's well trusted with this group, though. he didn't bring it up today. rand paul on the other hand, sticking to his libertarian philosophy and really got very tepid applause on most things that he talked about on drones. much better received on spending, however. >> domenico, thank you for swrining swrin i

joining us. mns m msnbc political analyst, david corn. and joy reid, managing editor of the grio.com. david, between allen west saying there's nothing so fearful to progressives on this green earth than a black american who wants a better life, and rand paul describing certain members of the republican party as covered in moss, i'm beginning to wonder if this year's cpac is about horticulture as opposed to polit politic. >> mitt romney, sarah palin, allen west being there, it's like the zombie apocalypse. these are the walking dead they're putting up as they march on to the forward, as they all believe in the great controversial notion of america. i mean, the seriousness analysis here is that cpac reflects and i think kind of accurately the dilemmas facing the conservative movement and the republican party which are overlapped but not the same. in which they still have a base that is very far right. doesn't want to hear about immigration. you know, certainly not gun control or any compromise. and they have some responsible

members of the movement or in the party who say, listen, we got to get away from this no, no, no, you know, ideological rigidity and start delivering otherwise we won't win any other other than our base. and that conflict is in the schedule when they don't have chris christie and bob mcdonnell. marco rubio not talking about immigration. the issue he's working on the most. and i don't expect to see anything resolved or worked out when it comes to the issues the republicans and conservatives have. >> but, david, and i come to you, joy. the great louie gohmert came out of the blocs at some pace today. co condemning the government for giving up on the korean war, and for not declaring war against iran in 1979. he said we should support the northern alliance in afghanistan. he said this -- i know they're muslims, but they're our

friends. that's a great reachout, a warm reachout by louie gohmert. >> no, it's -- where to begin? the problem is, and i think david got to it, there is a republican party and there is the conservative movement. it used to be like when the john burch society was the substitute for the crowd at cpac. what the republican party did was to push those people to the side and say, okay, there, there, you can go ahead and believe fluoride is the great work of the devil or the u.n. is fluoridating our wauter. that's fine you want to believe eisenhower is a communist, but you sit over there. a republican decided because their demographic pool is rinking, they need everyone in the tent. the republican party gave what formally would have been the radical sort of fringe people a lot of power within the party, itself. they basically said we, the party, will cater to you. now the idea of trying to unwind that is very difficult. when you blend those two together, you get people like allen west who are both republican party people who used to have power. in his case, he lost it. but who are also part of this really fringe radical movement. when they go out on to the

senate floor, house floor, when rand paul goes out and talks or ted cruz goes out and talks, they sound like crazy people to most of us. within the republican party, they are now in a sense of a kind of establishment. they're very difficult to push off. and cpac is where that dilemma kind of comes to a head. >> there are some real debates for this group to have. we were talking about this earlier today. rand paul gets out there and comes up with a very noninterventionist approach to foreign policy which comes from a libertarian streak. >> an isolationist. >> isolationaism. this drives people like john mccain, lindsey graham crazy. mccain called them wacko birds. you're going to have the neoconservatives, bill kristol and others out there saying don't let rand paul -- don't give rand paul the keys to our foreign policy car. this debate is not going to be worked out any time soon. it could get a lot more vicious and -- >> polarizing. do you think it will actually be

more splitting of the party? >> the interesting thing is rand paul tries to speak for the tea party wing of the party but doesn't represent the tea party wing on foreign policy, but they like him on other things. i think there's going to be a lot of confusion. if you two to the facebook page for the conservative movement, it's going to say it's complicated. >> right. here's marco rubio, as you know, 2016 star in the making, and he worked hard today in his speech to cast himself as the anti-mitt romney. take a listen to this. >> the vast majority of the american people are hardworking taxpayers who will take responsibility for their families, go to work every day, they pay their mortgage on time, they volunteer in the community. and what many of them see is, they think one side is fighting for the people that have made it and all the other side does it fight for government policies is protect the people who are struggling. they don't want to take anything away from anybody. >> that was a direct repudiation of the tape that you brought to the public's attention.

the 47%. >> clearly when he says the words responsibility, work hard, this is one reason why mitt romney lost. not necessarily because of the tape, but because he gave the impression he didn't care about hardworking americans. in fact, his career at bain sometimes put those people at risk. now, the next step for marco b rubio is the path toward greatness is explaining what he would do, what his policies would do. if he's supporting republican plans to cut back on pell grants, food stamps, you know, head start, and, you know, medicare -- >> basically the ryan budget. >> if he supports that stuff, that is not going to be helping these working families that he now is heralding. >> what was your reaction to that, joy? >> absolutely. what rubio is trying to do is solve the problem ronald reagan once solved when the exact same thing happened to the party in the past which you needed one unifying spokesman who could speak for the fringe wing of the party but also speak to the establishment and sort of relate to the whole group. not be a pat buchanan and just

be on one side. he's trying to do that. problem for marco rubio, he also has a track record. marco rubio, if you're a hard working latino, for instance, you know this guy was against sonia sotomayor. he use to be for privatizing social security. he hedged his position. >> he also supported rick scott in his attempts to suppress the vote in florida. >> indeed. he was for the arizona immigration law. the papers please law in arizona. this is a guy whose voting record is very draconian. for the paul ryan-style us a terry. the way he talks may sound like he's a bridge builder because he, himself, is hispanic and talking about the little guy who's working hard. his track record as a politician is much more like rand paul than ronald reagan. >> joy reid, david corn. thank you so much. coming up, the president today has met with republicans and democrats on capitol hill. don't tell the cpac faithful. with the spark miles card from capital one,

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the president's three-day tour of capitol hill ended today with a double bill feature. senate republicans and house democrats. however, judging by comments from speaker boehner today, it's uncertain how well this charm offensive on the part of the president has really worked. >> i'm glad president obama reached out yesterday and visited with our house republican conference. i think we had an honest discussion. but it's going to take more than dinner dates and phone calls. it's going to take the president and senate democrats rolling up their sleeves, making tough choices about how we solve our nation's problems. >> joining us now is democratic congressman, peter welsh of vermont. good afternoon, sir. congressman, i will get to speaker boehner in a moment, but

you've rushed to our camera having just finished your meeting with the president. i wonder if you should share with us your first impressions of how the meeting went, what the president said to you? >> well, it was positive. the democrats are a little concerned about whether the president was going to give away things in negotiations we didn't think he should. he made a couple points. one, corporate profits are up. we're starting to make progress in our economy. wages aren't and unemployment is too high. he wants to have budget that reflects building from the middle out things he said in the campaign. number two, he was asked specifically about chain cpi. what he made clear is he will not chase a bad deal. you heard mr. boehner just now, he seems to be demanding a bad deal. the president making it quite clear he won't chase it i think gave members some confidence it's not as though he's going to give something away like chain cpi. what the president said is any deal he negotiates is going to have to be balanced. that means a significant contribution from revenues, largely from cleaning up the tax

code, with a focus on investing. you know, the sequester is putting us two years off on doing a scientific research for health care. so the president was reassuring to us that he's focused on the middle class. he's focused on jobs and not interested in getting into a negotiation where we bid against ourselves, something we've done too much of in the past. >> congressman, members were i guess encouraged by what the president said in relation to matches like cpi. did the president say anything about maintaining unity amongst the caucus? >> he did. he made the obvious point the democrats win when we're united. and we can lose when we're divided. so he made a basic case that i think all of us know that we're better off when we're united. now, being united obviously means we're on the same page. but i think by in large the president was really quite well received. and, again, it goes back to the campaign. you know, he had a brutal campaign, and he was attacked as all of us were across the

country. but his essential choice for the american people was do we want to have an economy that starts building the middle class? and he went on that. and when he was before us, he reminded us that he still believes that. so i think it was a good -- it was good for him to be with the democrats and provide us with that reassurance. >> and yet, congressman, final question. the reality is is this week has shown us the position of the republicans in the form of congressman paul ryan's budget which is even more brutal and backward then the previous two manifestations of the ryan budget. >> that's right. people want us to work together. i want to work together. the president does. but bottom line, there really is a fundamental different point of view. paul ryan and mr. boehner have a view that -- necessary to get to the promised land as they see it. we see it as the problem.

you have to have more sharing of the wealth of america in order to have a strong middle class and a sustainable economy. >> congressman peter welsh, thank you so much, sir, for joining us so soon after meeting with the president. >> thank you. coming up, does the republican road to 2016 run through cpac? stay with us. >> the gop of old has grown stale and moss covered. i don't think we need to name any names. i'm the world's worst cleaning lady.

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introducing new secret clinical strength stress response scent. ♪ from the cattle to cowboy stadium, proud texasens like to dell us everything is bigger in the lone star state. to that list we can now add the rate of teenage pregnancy. yes, according to the most recent statistics, texas led the nation in teen births with

47,751, or an average of 130 each day. despite these desperate numbers, the state's family planning budge has now been slashed by 2/3. more than 50 clinics have closed. estimates show these cuts could result in 24,000 additional births at the cost of over $270 million to taxpayers. never fear, republicans in texas now want to create planned parenthood free zones in public schools referring abstinence is the only advice for family planning. congresswoman johnson is a democrat from texas sevrving he tenth term after becoming the first nurse elected to ocongres. i have a particularly soft spot for nurses because my mother-in-law was a nurse and my wife is a nurse. can you explain to our audience

why in the light of the evidence lawmakers in texas would prefer not to teach teenagers about safe sex and contraception and family planning? why would they do that in the light of being number one for teenage births? >> no, thank you, martin, for inviting me today. i am very chagrinned at my state. over 25 years ago i tried to carry a bill for sex education. you know, it's so sad, frankly, that we talk about education being half of every problem of getting answers. yet we're trying to stop education in one of the most essential areas of our life. and childbearing. and we can tell that the information is not being done scientifically because of the results. we still get more and more teenage pregnancy. >> but i still -- ma'am, i don't understand how politicians who struggle to keep their own underwear on, as we know, by

reputation and practice, can expect young children simply, and young students simply to embrace abstinence only and will not even allow the education, the sex education, that most developed nations regard as absolutely essential nowadays? >> well, abstinence is only a very small portion and we wrap that into religion. however, there is a scientific way to teach health practices that can be done in a classroom by a health problemgressal. that's what we need. if we don't do it in the classroom, the kids will get it online or for gossip, because they will get it one way or the other. it seems to me if we can do it professionally, we will make some gains in eliminating teenage pregnancy. we are not going to eliminate sex. we have to make sure that the proper information is in place to eliminate unwanted pregnancies. >> right. now, governor rick perry has just wrapped up a speech at

cpac. as you know, he's been fighting to defund planned parenthood for years. and he's still refusing any federal funds tied to the affordable care act. what does that mean for your constituents on a day-to-day basis? >> well, it means for my constituents and many, many others throughout the state that women will have no access to health care and health preventative measures. because planned parenthood, where we have no physicians, and in many parts of our state, are physicians who do not take people on medicaid, and we're eliminating that, that get mammography, for prevention, and other tests. and now he's outlawing altogether. we are moving backwards. i thought we were trying to head out of the 18th century, but it appears to me we have some mentality in office now that's going to make us the laughing stalk of the nation. >> congresswoman johnson from

texas. ma'am, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up. what's droid-smart ? with google now, it automatically knows when you need to leave for the airport, how much traffic there is, and has your boarding pass ready. the droid razr maxx hd by motorola. droid-smart. droid-powerful. with new lean cuisine salad additions. with grilled chicken edamame pineapple ginger vinaigrette and crispy noodles. just bring your own lettuce. new lean cuisine salad additions. just byol. find us in frozen. plus the perfecting color of a bb cream equal? introducing the newest beauty trend. total effects cc cream c for color. c for correction. [ female announcer ] fight 7 signs of aging flawlessly. cc for yourself.

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that's why i got a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. from historic white smoke at the vatican, to more blowing smoke at cpac, here are today's top lines. 47 kt man. >> elected the 266th pope. here are other names he could have selected. >> any white smoke here? >> number 5, pope w. bush. >> are you surprised barack obama i was not elected as pope? >> republicans want to balance the budget. president doesn't. they haven't said that. today was a good start. >> obama's charm offensive. >> i know that you know. >> this is more of an offensive. >> you lost some weight, you're working out. you look like you're ready to go in ufc. >> thank you, buddy. you're looking pretty good yourself, in a manly kind of way.

>> i actual just want to govern, at least for a couple years. >> unfortunately, washington, d.c., has -- >> i thank all of you for braving the crumbling roads and bridges to get here today. >> there's nothing on this that a liberal progressive fears more than a black american who wants a better life and smaller government. >> a real hero of the conservative movement, grover norquist. >> marco rubio, the r.g. iii of american politics. >> r.g. iii hasn't been in washington very long, but he's already created change. >> it is my duty to make sure that as many people heard it as possible. >> the 47%. >> this is america we're talking about. >> he's saying we're twisted. he's blaming the media. >> you know, when you speak in private, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted. >> the election isn't even that close. take personal responsibility for the words he said.

>> let's get right to our panel. joining us, dana milbank live at cpac. msnbc political contributor jimmy williams in washington. jimmy, we know now who was responsible for recording mitt romney's infamous 47% speech. of course, conservatives are complaining this guy wasn't a mutual observer, that he was pushing some kind of agenda. but for argument's sake, let's assume he's not a mutual observer. so what? it doesn't change what mitt romney said, does it? >> it's almost like the movie "can "the help". they are mad at this guy, at a fund-raiser for multi bazillionares. they're pissed off because they defended the help? how out of touch could these people be? they're blaming the guy who recorded the video.

that's pathetic and an affront to working people across this country. it really is. >> dana, i realize you're wearing a somewhat impressive badge today. there we are. don't believe the liberal media. who was that given to you by? >> i picked that out myself, martin. i'm under cover as you can see at cpac. i'm a few feet away from governor perry talking to fox news. i want to say in contrast to your earlier segment, i find him to be an intelligent and handsome man and quite a bit larger than i am. >> thank you for that. as you know, it may be a bit late for mitt romney, jimmy, but it's not too late for the new generation of republicans all strutting their stuff there at cpac. in fact, we heard from two potential white house aspirants. here are both of them. senator rand paul from kentucky. >> the gop of old has grown stale and moss covered.

i don't think we need to name any names. >> jimmy, who could he possibly be talking about? >> i don't know. i mean, is he talking about the same presidential candidate that he just voted for? i mean, i could be wrong. i don't know. >> is he referring to john mccain or mitt romney? or paul ryan? >> or george bush. or any of the old stale predecessors that -- maybe he's talking about mitch mcconnell. the guy that didn't want him to become his junior senator. i'm not sure who he's talin tal about. i don't have many personal conversations with rand paul. i know barry goldwater went to the senate floor in 1981, you know, after having run for president. the leader of the conservative movement. ronald reagan was now the new president. right? he said something very interesting. he said, i'll paraphrase, i'm tired of these religious groups coming into my office telling -- he said this on the senate floor. telling me that i have to vote a certain way because of their moral authority.

he goes, i'll fight them every stret step of the way. this was the leader of the conservative movement. this is the guy they should be actually working after and trying to be like. but instead they're nothing more than little tea party fringe people and they're nuts. they're crazy. >> okay. dana, cpac also heard from senator marco rubio of florida today. that's the other potential presidential candidate. and as i'm sure you know, each of the last three republican presidential nominees, mitt romney, john mccain, and george w. bush all placed either first or second in the cpac straw poll at some point in their bid for the white house. are you expecting this year's straw poll to be just as predictive? may i say, what beautiful music appears to be playing behind you. >> reporter: yes, i believe it's a funeral dirge they're playing for me, perhaps. the straw poll here has been unpredictable. often these things are hijacked by the likes of ron paul.

wouldn't be surprising in this case if it comes out to be rand paul. i think what you are getting this year which i have not felt in previous years is there a lot of friendly fire here. it's -- you saw it a little bit in that clip you played from rand paul in the backroom, the breakout sessions here. people are actually shouting at each other as they talk about what went wrong in november. and how they fix things going forward. so there's a whole lot of wrestling over the soul of the party here, even among this conservative core of the party. >> and yet, dana, i noted that marco rubio said barely nothing about immigration. that's supposed to be a topic that he's supposed to be leading on as far as the republican party is concerned. why would he not wish to mention immigration at cpac? >> well, he may be leading on that, but he's going to leave that behind when he's here because he wants to shore up his credentials. this is how he speaks to his conservative base. immigration is how he's going to reach out to the middle. so he wants to do both at once,

but he's no fool. he knows he's not going to get much of a reception for that. they did have a session on immigration earlier in the day and it was that predictable dispute about border control versus acknowledging the reality of legalizing the undocumented who are here. >> now, jimmy, you may describe this as a tea party circus. but in fact, magnificent mitt romney is back tomorrow. wayne lapierre will be speaking as well, as well as the great sarah palin and the great donald trump. what do you expect mitt romney to say to the cpac crowd given what was a fairly poor performance in the presidential election? >> last time he said he was severely conservative. i wonder if they actually believe that now, and so i don't know, i don't know why -- it's almost like lazerous risen from the dead. why would he come again? he's not going to run again. ran 17 times for president. lost every single time either in the primary or the general.

i'm not sure what he's going to add to this except maybe he thinks he's the moral leader of the republican party having just been the banner holder. i'm not sure what he can add to it. let's be honest who the moral leader of this group is, that's grover norquist. you heard the reaction he got. no one cheered more wildly for anyone than grover norquist. guy who says if you raise prices, i'm going to beat you in a primary. >> dana, what do you expect magnificent mitt to offer us tomorrow? >> he's getting a lot of abuse in the back sessions blaming him for what happened here, so i think they will be polite to him. but he wants to come out and say, look, it wasn't my fault, it was x, y and z. i believe he'll get a reasonable reception here. >> let's hope so. you stay safe. dana milbank, jimmy williams, thank you both. coming up, the national gun conversation overheats in the senate. >> i'm not a sixth grader. senator, i've been on this

committee for 20 years. i was a mayor for nine years. i walked in, i saw people shot. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. boom. heart attack. the doctor recommends bayer aspirin to keep this from happening to me again. it's working. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. it can happen to anyone. talk to your doctor.

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do not drive, operate machinery or do unsafe tasks until you know how toviaz affects you. the most common side effects are dry mouth and constipation. talk to your doctor about toviaz. the senate judiciary committee approved legislation today that would restore the assault weapons ban passed under former president clinton then allowed to expire under former president george w. bush. it was a strict party line vote. ten democrats in favor. eight republicans opposed. and there was no shortage of fireworks. take a listen. >> would senator yield for a question? >> let me just make a couple of points in response. one, i'm not a sixth grader. senator, i've been on this committee for 20 years. i was a mayor for nine years. i walked in. i saw people shot. and so i -- you know, it's fine

you want to lecture me on the constitution. i appreciate it. just know i've been here for a long time. i've passed on a number of bills. i've studied the constitution, myself. i am reasonably well educated. and i thank you for the lecture. >> joining us now is msnbc contributor goldie taylor who's also managing editor of the "goldie taylor project." goldie, we want to mention in a moment that vote. but the president called on lawmakers to give this bill a vote before the full senate. the exchange we just saw between senator ted cruz of texas and senator dianne feinstein of california, who's the sponsor, of course, of the assault weapons ban. that's not the kind of thing we see from senators every day, is it? >> no, it really isn't what we see from them every day, but i have to say senator feinstein was a bit more gracious than maybe i would have been. it reminded me of the old lloyd benson moment where he said, senator, you are no jack kennedy. dianne feinstein is the last person who needs to be lectured

about the rigors of the constitution and what limits may or may not be about the second amendment. >> if there's anyone who knows a lit bit about the horrors of gun violence, goldie, as you say, it's dianne feinstein. she became mayor of san francisco in '78 because a gunman assassinated the sitting mayor and murdered gay rights pioneer harvey milk. we saw senator feinstein sticking up for herself. take a listen to her back on that day when she confronted gun violence firsthand. >> both mayor musconi and supervisor harvey milk have been shot and killed. >> goldie, i would only point out that the day those assassinations happened, november 28th, 1978, ted cruz was just 7 years old. so how come he's now lecturing senator feinstein about firearms? >> you know, to say that there are no limits on the second amendment is like saying there's no limit on the right of free

speech. of course there's a limit on free speech. there's libel, slander. of course, there are limtss on the second amendment as well. you don't have the right to own a bazooka. you don't have the right to own a military-style weapon if the government decides to curtail some of that. so i -- i think that ted cruz is on a bit of slippery ground here to use his own words. at the end of the day, this bill, however, has not a chance in the world of passing the senate, yet alone this republican-controlled house. i think that's where we really are on this issue. the important thing is this is going to come together with another piece of legislation about universal background checks. harry reid is going to have to cobble together something. something meaningful that he can pass and move on to this house so we can get some bills signed. i really doubt the bill in its pure form as dianne feinstein has proposed it will see the light of day. >> right. all the so-called wise men and women of washington say senator

feinstein's bill, as you say, has no chance of passing the full senate, but every day you and i see the incredible toll that this is taking. just this week, we saw the death of a 6-year-old little -- 6-month-old little baby girl called jonalah watkins of chicago. she was shot five times while her father was changing her diaper in the front seat of the minivan. the father was also shot. incredible, the mother had been shot, herself, once, while she was pregnant. what are we supposed to do about this? are we supposed to just walk away from some kind of meaningful legislation, when babies as young as 6 months old are murdered while their diapers are being changed? >> you know, martin, this is probably the most unspeakable tragedy we can think of, you know, when newtown hit and 20 schoolchildren were murdered in their classrooms, and then you see a 6-month-old child who

certainly had done nothing to anyone but grace this world with her wonderful presence shot five times? that's the kind of remarkable tragedy, in the face of that, we can't seem to get meaningful gun legislation passed through the senate or the house. at the end of the day we ought to be closing the loophole to allow them to do their business and -- i'm going to bat you a dime to a doughnut that the gun that killed jonahlah watkins was an illegal cheap handgun. if it were -- that's the same kind of handgun that killed my father. the same kind of handgun that killed my brother. the same kind of handgun that shot my cousin in the back and left him paralyzed when he was 13 years old. when will this stop? it won't stop until we stand up and make it stop. and that means meaningful gun reform legislation that allows the people who are law-abiding, who are righteous about this thing, who are responsible, to own the handguns they need for self-protection but to put in some deep regulation so that the

people who don't need to have handguns, those people who are mentally ill, those people who have criminal backgrounds, those people who have criminal intent, that they should not be able to own weapons. >> goldie taylor, as ever, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> going to wait to see what the nra's wayne lapierre will say tomorrow at cpac. coming up, do unto others. charity and the paul ryan budget collide. first, hampton pearson has the cnbc market wrap. good afternoon, hampton. >> martin, the dow closing at a record high for the eighth straight day. the s&p closing just three points from its own. the dow up 83. the s&p closing up 8. the nasdaq gaining 13 points. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money.

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as the catholic church celebrates the elevation of pope francis who once spoke as inequality as skpacandalous, republicans celebrate the third iteration of the paul ryan budget about which many of used the exact same word. ryan's budget costs almost $1 trillion from both medicare and in particular medicaid. and it unnecessarily cuts almost one in five dollars out of the program exon lcommonly referred food stamps. joining us now, jared bernstein, seen jnior fellow. let me read you paul ryan's statement upon the elevation of pope francis. "my family and i offer our prayers for pope francis, like his namesake, st. francis, pope franris lived a life of humility and commitment to the poor. for his spiritual leadership, we are grateful. for his message of renewal, we will heed his call."

can you tell me, jared, how cutting medicaid and food stamps squares with the concept of humility? >> i'm afraid i can't. you're looking at over something, liking about close to 20 million people who would lose their medicaid benefits if the cuts went into effect. and millions of folks on food stamps as well. and remember, these are programs that are directly targeted at folks who are struggling with nutrition on one hand, and health care costs on the other. if you take that safety net away, i'm sure in paul ryan's mind there's an idea these folks can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. they don't have the bootstraps. these are people who are living on poverty-level incomes. >> right. now, members of the u.s. conference of catholic bishops wrote congress a series of letters, as you know, about the

last ryan budget. one on march the 6 th read in part "a century more measure of any budget proposal is how it effects the least of these." isn't ryan's goal is just hope the least of these in our culture, in our society, are someone else's problem? that basically central government should stop worrying about the needs of these people who may be in desperate situations and desperately reliant on government aid? >> very much so, and the idea behind all this, kind of the thinking among folks like representative ryan and his ilk, is that if you pull the safety net away from these folks, at the same time, by the way, taking the savings you get from all those cuts to the programs, the hundreds of billions you were just citing. medicaid, food stamps. and you give that to wealthy people in terms of tax cuts, somehow it will trickle down and uplift the poor. well, we've never seen that to

be the case. in fact, what we have found is when we've engaged in that kind of backwards upsidedown redistribution we've gotten e equality and much higher poverty rates. over the period of the 2000s, the business cycle where the supply side cuts for rampant, poverty didn't fall hardly at all. in fact, it ticked up a little bit and that's not supposed to happen. so, again, you're imposing an ayn randian philosophy on real people's lives in a way that's wholly inconsistent with good economics, not to mention sympathetic religious teachings. >> indeed. i know, jared, you're an economist and you don't regard yourself as a theologian. but here is how paul ryan said his faith informed his philosophy. take a listen to this. >> i feel it's important to discuss how as a catholic in public life my own personal thinking on these issues has been guided by my understanding of the church's social teaching.

simply put, i don't believe that the preferential option for the poor means a preferential option for big government. >> jared, the poor don't regard handouts from the government as the pref rerential option. it's often the only option, isn't it? >> not only is it often the only option, but if you actually look at preferences, say, within our tax code, preferences, by the way, that paul ryan would really boost a lot. those preferences very clearly tilt toward those at the very top of the income scale. i'm talking about capital gains and carried interests and kpe exceptions for hedge fund folks. if you want to take what he's teaching there and apply them to the budget, you'd be doing exactly the opposite kinds of measures he's proposing. >> jared bernstein, theologian, kmis economist, everything.

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